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Siege of Northampton (880)
The Siege of Northampton occurred from 879 to 880 AD amid the Viking invasions of England. King Alfred the Great of Wessex and the West Saxon royal fyrd laid siege to the Danish stronghold of Northampton, which was defended by a garrison of 780 Danes under Guttron, and the Saxons took the city by storm. Background Following the 878 AD Battle of Edington, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex and the Danish kingdom of East Engle agreed to a fragile peace, with the Danes establishing the "Danelaw" in southeastern and northern England and the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia occupying southern, southwestern, and central England. King Alfred the Great of Wessex looked to secure his domains against further Viking incursions, which were all but inevitable as the other Danish kingdoms in the British Isles and Viking raiders from across the sea continued to vie for power with the indigenous Christian kingdoms. After suppressing internal dissent in Wessex, securing the loyalty of his ealdormen, and increasing the size of the fyrd, King Alfred encamped at Dorchester with his army, overseeing the defense of Wessex's northern border. In 879, Alfred was presented with an opportunity for expansion. The minor Danish principalities in the Midlands, namely Heimiliborg, Bedeborg, Ledeborg, Steinnborg, and Veidrborg, began to war amongst each other for control of their small fiefs. While Alfred felt secure that East Engle would not attack Wessex's unprotected southern regions, as King Guthrum was grappling with an invasion from the newly-arrived Wicing raiders, he sought to be prepared for the eventual war with Guthrum's Vikings and decided that surrounding East Anglia through the conquest of its feuding neighbors would be a wise plan. In the autumn of 879 AD, he marched his army north from Dorchester to occupy the Danish town of Buckingham, which was loyal to Copsig, the Danish ruler of Bedeborg. This precipitated a war between Wessex and the Viking kingdoms of Bedeborg, Ledeborg, and Heimiliborg, and, in the winter of 879 AD, Alfred marched his army further north to besiege Heimiliborg's capital of Northampton. Siege Alfred's army constructed two battering rams over the next three months, preparing to take the city by storm before one of the nearby Danish principalities could dispatch an army to its relief. Surprisingly, no Danish army interceded during Alfred's siege preparations, allowing for the West Saxons to launch an assault on the city in the spring of 880 AD. Assault ]]The West Saxons waited for a rainstorm to end before launching an attack during clear weather. The two battering rams advanced side-by-side, with one of them serving as archery fodder as the other advanced. However, the Danish archers on the walls focused first on the main ram, massacring its crew with showers of arrows and routing them; they then did the same to the other ram's crew as they moved in to batter down the gates. King Alfred rallied the second crew, who suicidally ran back to their ram and finally battered down the gates. The West Saxon infantrymen who charged into the town found that a force of Danish spearmen awaited them at the main entrance, leading to immediate melee combat. The entire battle would occur at the gates, as the Anglo-Saxon thegns hacked their way through droves of poorly-armed Danish settlers who desperately attempted to hold the Saxons back. Ultimately, the Saxons overwhelmed the gate's defenders, with each routing Danish unit making way for the Saxons to flank the increasingly-depleted Danish defenders and slaughter them from many sides. Nonetheless, the Danes put up stiff resistance before West Saxon cavalry charged into the town and overwhelmed their remnants. At the last minute, a troop of Danish hirdsmen under Sigeferth Buisson joined the battle, but they soon faced the combined might of the West Saxon army, being charged by their cavalry before being hemmed in on by the Saxon infantry and annihilated. Aftermath The capture of Northampton was a major victory for Wessex, as the Vikings had been deprived of a major base in the Midlands, and Alfred was able to add Middle Engle to his domains. He appointed Osric as the ealdorman of Middle Engle, and he then made preparations to complete his conquest of the region by taking Bedford. Category:Sieges Category:Viking invasions of England